On August 19 both Ukraine and India officially announced about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ukraine. But it was a real bolt from the blue, when, in the third week of July, both the Indian and Ukrainian media leaked the same news without official confirmation. More so, after the bear-hug optics with Russian President Putin, and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s sharp condemnation of PM Modi’s trip to Moscow.
A few weeks before this news was out, members of the Indian diaspora spoke about an appeal to the PM to visit Ukraine at a regular online meeting platform, “Ukraine and South Asia: Open Dialogues”.
Devastated by India’s damaged image, especially in the light of Russian missiles hitting Ukraine on the very day our PM was in Moscow meeting Putin, their frustration was well-founded. Out of the 38 missiles fired, 30 were shot down; at least 41 people were killed and 170 injured. A Kh-101/cruise missile targeted the largest children’s hospital, Okhmatdyt, in the heart of Kyiv; debris from the shot-down missiles fell in several other places.
Dr Aloke Bansal, an orthopaedic surgeon, winner of the Presidential Order “Honoured Doctor of Ukraine”, recalled, how on July 8, he finished a small operation, when the alert siren sounded; how he cried, knowing his colleagues were operating on children when the missile hit. The dialysis and cancer units were evacuated; there were no patient casualties but the doctor on duty was killed. Six doctors were killed on that day in Ukraine.
In another part of Kyiv, several perished when part of a residential building, hit by debris, collapsed, within 300 metres from the Indian embassy’s chancery. In Kyiv alone, 27 people were killed, including three children, and 82 were wounded. Dr Bansal publicly appealed to the PM to visit Kyiv.
Contrasting the image of Putin welcoming Modi, who would ever forget the photo of Indian medical students in front of the ruined Okhmatdyt hospital, helping people? And the video that went viral of Artem with his artificial leg, standing and clearing the rubble with volunteers?
Artem, a former jujitsu champion, lost his leg in the war. The artificial leg was supplied by Parashar Industries, founded by Nagender Parashar, an Indian, who set up his prosthetics manufacturing and rehabilitation company some 15 years back. Parashar has become a legend putting people back on track, old or young, male or female, military or civil, catering to their prosthetic needs.
Ram Dange, CEO of an agribusiness company, was disturbed, but he hoped that Modi’s visit to Kyiv on August 23, the Independence Day eve in Ukraine, is symbolic, affirming that very independence which Russia is destroying. Ram generously provides food aid since 2022.
There are several Indians in the pharma industry in Ukraine supporting this country - Dr U.P.R. Menon, head of the Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association; Dr Sailesh R. Prasad; head of Hetero Labs; and Alok Batra, director of SUN Pharma. Indians like Thamarai Pandian, CEO of DIA Pharma, and Sanjeev Bhagat, CEO of EuroLife Care, set up their own companies.
Overall, humanitarian medical aid from these companies amounted to almost $18 million in the US. Of course, entrepreneurs get more attention because of their resources and wealth. Also, there are professionals – Dr Tharun Sathyaseelan, the renowned dentist; Nirmal Vishevnyk, the lawyer; endocrinologist Kanwarjit Singh; Arnab Roychuramoni, the yoga expert – working, and managing their own chambers and clinics. Support for Ukraine unites them all.
Among some 4,000 Indian medical students, who returned to finish their studies, are interns working in hospitals. A girl student treated Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba during her duty at the hospital when a dog bit him in winter. The minister often fondly remembers the Indian doctor’s help.
These Indians are like lamps silently glowing amidst a dark sea of ignorance and indifference about the war and devastation in Ukraine. Providing critical help at this hour, each of them is well-known in Ukraine and has upheld the humanist image of India. A rare phenomenon.
While evacuation of the 20,000-strong student community was more publicised during the first days of the war, with hype and noise, the story of the Indian diaspora in Ukraine seldom caught the headlines. Their small number does not make them to be of interest to Indian politicians as lobby or vote banks, as well as to the media. Most of them consider Ukraine their second home. They never left Ukraine. Needless to say, they get little attention from the public diplomacy perspective of both countries.
When Ukrainians question the reason of Modi’s visit, whether to compensate for the loss of his personal and India’s image after the Moscow trip or that the PM really wants to see things on the ground, not many expect him to mediate, precisely because, unlike China and Hungary, India has not presented any peace plan. India did not condemn Russian aggression, although Modi spoke about the inadmissibility of the use of force several times before Putin.
However, the ambiguity of supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, but at the same time not calling for the withdrawal of Russian occupation forces, instead talking about an end to hostilities and ceasefire, is quite puzzling. Irrespective of that, this visit will enter history as the first one by any Indian prime minister after Ukraine became independent in 1991. The same is true for post-socialist Poland, which the Indian prime minister will visit after 40 years.
Ukrainians and Indians would like Modi to visit the children’s hospital, see a few more sites, and talk to people on the ground. On August 15 an appeal signed by hundreds of people was sent to the office of the prime minister to meet the diaspora, who kept the flame glowing, India’s image untarnished, and reiterating India’s call for peace.
Who knows? Besides issues of sectoral cooperation, this visit might increase Modi’s intent and political will to be proactive and carve a niche for India to end the most terrible war of aggression after World War II in Europe and bring a just peace. The media in Ukraine has been the loudest about these issues these days.
(The author, Mridula Ghosh, formerly with the UN, is a professor of international relations at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy)